Socl – It’s Microsoft’s “Me too” time again

Cast your mind back to November 2011. For those readers here they may remember an article I wrote about a rumored social networking site Microsoft was developing. As Microsoft desperately throws mud at the wall in the hope something will stick, it seems that there is no stone they won’t leave unturned (figuratively speaking). With that in mind, summoning an image of a stone might be a good comparison for Microsoft’s latest venture with, I believe very little chance of being anything other than cold and and lifeless. My original article from 2011 can be found here.

It was only a few years back that Microsoft threw its hands up in the air with its blogging service, leaving thousands of blogger refugees who were picked up by the charity of Word-press when they offered (with Microsoft’s blessing) and easy way to migrate their blogs.

Now it appears Microsoft can take on Facebook (and to a lesser extent G+ and D*) with it’s Socl product. I suppose this is like Bing eh? The Google killer. Forgive me for being skeptical but it appears that Microsoft’s Socl has as much chance of success as Steve Ballmer’s shirt has of remaining dry after one his stage performances.

The firm quietly introduced Socl with almost no fan-fare, perhaps trying to avoid building up expectations only for Socl to fall flat like the Zune and Kin.

Of course it doesn’t want to compete with Facebook (if it ever did become more popular then that tact would change in my view) So what we see (or as its suggested in the above quote) is Microsoft doing again what its been rather good at recently – jumping on the back of success of others. One only has to look at Android and the Microsoft “licenses” to see that one Microsoft is very good at riding the good fortune of others. According to the article though it wants to compete with G+ instead which is strange because as far as the average user is concerned, they are the same type of service, albeit from different company. Perhaps the most ironic thing about this whole piece of news is the thought of Microsoft getting social. Who can forget the numerous advocates I’ve challenged (including MVP’s) who have been anything but “social”.

Talking of social though (and maybe adding “anti” to the beginning) people would be very well served reading the posts of Microsoft Advocates that infest comp.os.linux.advocacy. That’s what “social” means to them ;)

Wandering around Microsoft’s Socl, it hard to see how the social network offers anything more than what has been available from its competitors for years.

And thats a rather good observation of Microsoft products as a whole in my view. That’s why we have Microsoft allegedly making more from Android licenses than it does from its own native platform (WP7), why Bing can’t get the better of Google and by the way, wheres the Windows 8 excitement?

Tim (Goblin)

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Discussion

5 thoughts on “Socl – It’s Microsoft’s “Me too” time again”

Just checked the Search feature and you have an option to display the search publicly. So just wondering let’s say if people are searching for any brand, so is there any way it will show somewhere in the featured items, or most searched on world wide web, as the videos are shown on you tube.

I think the one thing we can say about this latest scheme of Socl….. Its got the lifespan of a chicken going to a fox convention. I think it’s fairly safe for me to say that I don’t think we will be hearing much more about this one…. Its just another attempt to try to find something that works…..

On a semi related note, it was interesting that Google revealed its takedown requests, especially those from Microsoft. There may be another issue in that rather than just merely take-down requests…I’ll be posting it soon.

Hi Las…well socl is quite simply a way for users to share weblinks search et al… I’m sorry if you couldn’t see the direction MS is taking from the article I wrote… As for competition, of course its competing with G+ it won’t compete with Facebook because thats an impossible goal….. Mind you I’m sure if it ever did beat Facebook in the stats then Microsoft would claim that it was a Facebook beater all along. Just like other social networks, you can follow friends on socl….personally in its current form I’d say that its more trying it on with Pearltree’s rather than G+ however that doesn’t change the “me too” of Microsoft.

about.me

Writer/Novelist of many facets both in the world of technology and fantasy/sci-fi. Co-host of the TechBytes audiocast and writer for both OpenBytes and Goblin's Domain. Supporter of free and open source software.